by Nate Chinen

05/17/2010

RIP Hank Jones

The passing of pianist Hank Jones lit up the jazz
Twitterverse this morning, and for good reason: at 91, Jones was one of the last
surviving masters of his momentous peer group, and still playing with
extraordinary grace. I last heard him just a year or two ago with tenor saxophonist
Joe Lovano, his partner on an excellent series of Blue Note albums (find them here, here and here). Here’s the NYT obit.

My first encounters with Jones were naturally on record:
albums by Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie Parker. When I finally had
the chance to see him about a dozen years ago, I was struck most by his
correctness, a quality that suffused everything from his chord
voicings to his posture and attire. But as Gary Giddins noted in 2007: “Jones’s
playing isn’t all that genteel: mannerly, yes, but at the core resolute and
spare.”

And by all means, see the clip below, which features Jones
in good company, backing Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Sweets Edison, Flip Phillips and Ella
Fitzgerald, in a rhythm section with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Buddy Rich. (Ah, YouTube.)